R2's birthday

R2's birthday fell on a Wednesday this year so he had to go to school on his birthday. He told me the night before that he was going to be sick the next day and wouldn't be able to go to school. I explained that it would be much better if he went to school. So R2 went to school and waited until he got home to celebrate his birthday. Dad got home from work in time for R2 to get home from school and he just wouldn't wait any longer to open his presents. Lego's were a big part of his presents and he is learning to put them together by himself. His brother's were right there helping him, though.



It is fun to see them with their heads together working on something.
This was the thing that was most wanted. It is a lego bionicle and he was really excited to get it.

R2 wanted a snake cake and we had snakes (ramen noodles) for supper.

All in all it was a really fun day.

Gingerbread Houses

We had loads of fun doing gingerbread houses this year. Thanks Grandma for starting the tradition.

Bob's house was hit by archers.

Spike (our minimalist) took great care in everything that was put on.

R2 did a great job with designs this year. He stuffed his mouth with candy right before the picture. Notice his squirrel cheeks!

Our cousin and his mom had lots of fun with this house.

The youngest got to do a gingerbread boy.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was shared with my brother's family at our house. We had lots of food and games and more food and more visiting and games then more food. My brother's family has a new boxer puppy that the kids had a lot of fun with. She was a very patient puppy. We ended the evening with a game of Apples to Apples and Whoonu. It was tons of fun. Here are pictures.

Just wondering...

I do not have a turn with this computer on the weekends so as soon as everyone leaves tomorrow, I will post pictures of Thanksgiving. But before that, everyone is in bed and I am watching our Christmas tree wondering if I am ready for a teenage boy. I have decided that I am not.

You have already seen the missing eyebrow episode. Well, yesterday he came to me with a twinkle in his eye and said "Mom, if something weird happens in the next little while, I had nothing to do with it."

So what am I supposed to do with that?

Apparently he and R2 were in the kitchen drawing and Bob allegedly did not suggest that R2 color his hand with a marker to look like a glove. When I found R2, he was trying to wash the gray marker off his whole hand.

This isn't finished yet.

Today we had tithing settlement. While we were getting ready to leave, Bob took R2 aside and told him that if he (R2) didn't pay his tithing to the bishop, he (the bishop) would get out his taser gun and shoot him (R2) with it. R2 came to me with wide eyes and a scared look on his face.

Please tell me. What do you do with a teenage boy? This can only get worse...

Never a dull moment...

Just a few days before I was planning to take pictures of the kids to put on the wall, Bob decided to pick his right eyebrow off. I'm not exactly sure on why he did this. I am chalking it up to him being a bored tween with too much time and too many ideas of what to do. I told him that he should have told me and I would have got the razor out so we could have done a good job of it. I debated on what to do with pictures and opted to pencil in the half missing eyebrow. That was an experience in itself ("hold still and don't squeeze your eye shut"). I thought you would all like to see the pictures of the missing eyebrow and the penciled-in one.

This is the missing eyebrow...

Here is the penciled-in one...

Halloween

Okay, I'm a couple weeks behind. I had some issues with doing a blog. Hopefully they are all taken care of.

The youth in our ward do a Halloween Carnival so, that along with trick-or-treating, we have two events to dress up for. Thinking up and making Halloween costumes is not my favorite thing (and I'm not that good at it, either) so I have told the kids that if they can think of a costume and how to put it together, I will help them. It gets pretty interesting sometimes.



This year for the Halloween Carnival, Bob was supposed to help with the deacon's activity. He wasn't sure if he was going to dress up this Halloween but because he was helping, he had to. So the day before, he said he wanted to be a tree. So he went out to our yard and got some branches which we duct taped to his shirt. It didn't last all night.


Then for trick-or-treating, he put this shirt on.



Spike decided early in October that he wanted to be the grim reaper. We took a trip into the DI and found just what we needed.




R2 had many ideas but settled on an Umpa-Loompa (from the new movie). I found a jump-suit at the DI (its supposed to be a prison uniform so you have to use your imagination as with all the costumes I help with). As I was fixing his hair, I decided that I am very glad he is a boy and I don't feel like I have to help him with his hair every day. He said "Ouch" every time the comb touched his head. I was trying to be soft but after a while I decided it didn't matter so every time he said "Ouch" I pushed harder. That would not be a good thing if it happened every day.

R2 was an Umpa-Loompa for both things.

For the Halloween carnival, I dressed up in a polyester suit that my mother wore when I was little. The problem was, no one knew if it was a costume or if I got a new outfit. Garth refused to wear anything polyester with me. He's still the party pooper at our house.

Making Jack-O-Lanterns

We had our yearly pumpkin carving event the Monday before Halloween. It was fun as usual. The kids show their creative sides and it is always fun to see what Dad comes up with. This year (inspired by a picture sent to us by Hailey) his pumpkin is throwing up pumpkin guts. It was great! Bob has a face, as well as pumpkin pie is symbol form. Spike's pumpkin is sporting a soul patch. R2's pumpkin is a skeleton face.

Calvin's Birthday

Calvin asked if we could celebrate his birthday on Saturday since he had a lot planned. So we had his friends and their families over for lunch. I was worried about the weather so we had chili (that was Calvin's choice anyway.) It turns out we didn't have to worry about the weather after all. We all went out on the deck to eat and it was warm enough that we cooked in the sun. So we came in the house for cake. After friends went home to finish getting ready for winter, we went to the corn maze (I forgot my camera so we have no pictures. Sorry.) We had a lot of fun. Garth and Sam started going on every path in the maze (even the dead ends). Calvin had the map and worked out what trails would take us out and took off. He didn't have any patience with the dead end group. I was in the middle just hoping no one would leave me alone to get lost (yes, just a bit of anxiety going on). So I figured Garth was with Sam so I went with Calvin and Russell. After a while we decided to wait for Garth and Sam. When they caught up with us Garth said "Did you see the head?" (apparently there was a stuffed head somewhere that had fallen off something) Well, Calvin decided he was staying with Dad because he finds cool things. Then we got lost. So Garth who was against the map all along, had to bring it out and figure out how to get us out. Which he did. It was great fun. Here are pictures of the party.

First Snow of the Season!!!!

We had to dig out the boots and gloves so the kids could go play in the snow. Of course they had to get the sticks involved to bat snowballs (and other moving targets).


Here are the cheesy grins (notice no smile for Bob. It just isn't possible.)

I'm still learning...

Garth just showed me how to put a border and a background on a picture. Init cute?

Pumpkins

This is Bob (who by the way is not capable of smiling in a picture)

This is Spike

(this picture also gives a nice view of our weeds)

This is R2
(who has a great smile)

Okay... here goes

I have had so much fun looking at other people's blogs that I thought I should start one for our family. But I am pretty blog illiterate so I'm not sure how it will turn out.